Twerk the Vote to GET OUT THE VOTE!!!

It’s a well-known secret that Republicans generally want to suppress turnout (let’s force people to wait 2 hours to vote) while Democrats generally want to boost it (Twerk the vote!).

(Woman twerking to the polls in order to raise voting awareness. ‘Merica!)

This isn’t because one party is evil and the other is angelic. They’re both acting in their perceived self-interest. There’s also countless cases where Democrats suppress turnout by closing poll places in Republican strongholds while Republicans boost turnout by sending buses to pick up seniors from nursing homes. Call your Grandma! But historically Republicans have won more during low-turnout elections and Democrats have won more during high-turnout elections hence their overall difference in approaching turnout. In other words, it comes down to power.

I will also add, and to my surprise, that the turnout differential is much smaller than how the always honest mainstream media may have led you on to believe…

The unprecedented turnout in 2020 led to a virtual tie where the winner of the white house and senate will come down to less than 1% of the vote. 2020 should help settle the argument more than ever that high or low turnout in of itself doesn’t necessarily benefit one party.

So who does benefit from high-turnout?

Centrists.

To get voters to drive to a poll station 20 minutes from their house and wait 2 hours in a line to vote for a “meh” candidate where one’s vote will have an infinitesimal impact, which in most states is a foregone conclusion, the campaigns/media have to get voters very, very angry to be so — objectively speaking — irrational.

Every election NEEDS to be the most important in our lifetime. Vote for me because it’s life or death, freedom or slavery! We are watching you. Vote or die!

We’ve created a political system where the best campaign strategy is to scare voters to the polls with a charismatic populist strongman at the top of the ticket. The candidate who can best build a “cult of personality” around himself is most likely to win because his supporters will happily twerk in line for hours.

Now imagine a political system where it was easy to vote (many methods to do this that wouldn’t lead to widespread fraud if we just had the political will) then a polarizing campaign would be a disadvantage. The love/hate candidate is more likely to turn off the murky middle who often prefer the status quo hence why presidents are usually reelected.

I believe high-turnout elections make tyranny less likely. Most tyrants come to power via coups. Coups only become necessary when the democratic process fails. Hitler is the most famous elected leader turned tyrant, but he didn’t even win a majority of the vote despite his predecessor’s incompetence and his party’s use of violence and voter intimidation.

One of the potential downsides of high-turnout is we’ll have more low-information voters. Data seems to suggest both parties have about an equal amount of low-information voters.

In 2020 both parties improved their ability to get low-information voters to the polls via eliciting strong emotions (mostly negative ones) and via social media pressure. Moving forward, expect more low-information Americans to vote so how about instead of pulling them into the process via their heartstrings we do so via making voting easier? And then by becoming more consistent voters they’ll be more invested in the political process, which over time will increase their political knowledge. As FDR said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Let’s not let fear drive our politics. By making it easier to vote campaigns will be designed around persuading voters again instead of twerking at them.